A/N: Beta reader, come forth! Pairing ideas, again, still accepted. I love everyone who reviewed, followed, and favorited! Reviewer replies are at the bottom!

DISCLAIMER! Do you really think I own KHR?

The walls are slowly crumbling around us.

As a child, I can't say that I quite was model worthy.

I had this tangle of strange pink hair, which made me look like a cosplayer; it went past by shoulders by a few inches, along with classic cut bangs, right across my forehead. My eyes were just plain, light blue, and I was a little thin, my face too narrow.

Oh how every night I prayed the puberty fairy would bless me.

So whenever someone visited and said, 'oh she's beautiful!' I took it as a curtsey since; it's not polite, or smart to call a mafia boss's daughter ugly. Though I would argue that I was average.

But even so, when I was 10, I was asked to model for a commercial. It was when I was walking down the street with my mom, and of course since her dream was to have a modeling child, she accepted. Then called my dad screaming the news.

I myself spent the rest of the day wondering what on earth was wrong in that guy's head.

So the next day, my mother and I were driven to the agency, to see people swirling around on tittering heels, carry costumes and more. As soon as I arrived I was rushed to a seat, make up being smothered on my face right away.

At first I was in some awe, living a models life seemed pretty cool.

But one little thing the guy who scouted me forgot to mention.

I was going to be a pickle. Yes, a big, green pickle. And according to the director's hushed words, only small thin children were recruited, because someone messed up and ordered XXS costumes.

The commercial itself was just… odd… I was supposed to be the sad, boring pickle in a jar, all alone and dull. While there was another jar of happy cheering pickles. Why I was the depressed one, beats me. I've been told that I give off a gloomy aura…

Of course, the happy pickle jar got bought, while I stayed on the shelf, until someone threw me out.

Life lesson, don't be the boring, sad pickle.

So after this my model days were over. Anyways, it took my mom three bottles of make-up remover to get all the green paint off of my face, and my face was raw and red afterwards.

I looked like a pinked haired tomato for the next few hours, and it's not something that you should walk around in public like.

Really. Please, don't try this at home kids. Dressing up as a pickle too, you just might be shipped to a mental hospital.

So now that my days of a child model were over, (and ideas of what to do with all those jars of pickles) I had to start somehow figuring out how I was going to keep track of Tsuna and the others from Italy. Though my mom and dad had a more concerning matter in their minds.

Considering the fact that I'm 11 and I haven't made friends with pretty much anyone, my mom freaked out and thought this was a sign that I would be a loner for the rest of my life.

Gee, thanks mom.

So operation drop Kiyomi off at someone's house commenced.

This someone was a girl around my age, her name was Victoria, and she belonged to some fancy family so she was deemed appropriate for me to 'hang' with I guess?

Her family was filthy rich, so when I showed up in a simple blouse and skirt, I swear, even the maids were giving me looks of disgust. Or it might have been something with my hair, which was in its normal state of a ponytail.

I was taken to her room, were a lady was sitting, with green lipstick on, multicolored eyelids, and purple cheekbones. As soon as I entered, the blonde girl squealed, dropped whatever she was holding, and ran over to me examining my face closely.

I frowned slightly at the clos distance; my bubble did not like being broken.

"Ooo! You're just perfect!" She said happily before sitting my down in a chair, the lady from before had left already. She took out my elastic, and began to run a brush through my hair, I could hear a happy hum from behind me, as I closed my eyes, sighing at how my afternoon was going to be me getting all dolled up.

I wonder how red my face would be once all the make-up was scrubbed off again. Grim, and deep in my thoughts, I did not hear the soft snip of scissors from behind me. Which was a bad, bad, mistake.

By the time the snips could be heard and I whirled around horrified, my once long hair, had been hacked roughly to my shoulders, my bangs cut shorter, and my weird side bangs things that usually stayed on my chest were crooked.

I gaped at the pile of soft pink locks all over the floor, and back at my reflection in the mirror before at the now smiling/smirking Victoria who was getting her make up set all ready. I backed away slowly before sputtering out some words.

"You… Why?" It was a simple question as I fingered my now ruined hair in which I tried so hard to manage. Her smile seemed evil in my eyes as she grinned wider.

"Because I wanted too! And your hair's such a weird, ugly color, you would be so much better without it!" She smirked before snipping the scissors threatening.

I stared at her frowning before glaring and stalking straight out.

"No! You will stay right here, or else I'm telling them you hurt me!" Victoria demanded, stomping her foot on the ground for emphasis.

"I refuse." I don't think I've ever quite lost my temper before, considering most things I didn't really care about, but this girl was really, really, crawling on my nerves.

A devious smile came on her face before tears welled up in her eyes, and she sat on the ground sobbing loudly.

As if on command, a stampede of people came rushing over asking her what was wrong. Flashing me a smirk, she sniffled, before saying between sobs about how I 'asked for a make-over' then 'slapped her because I didn't like it' and 'called her a stupid, whiny, blonde.'

To her credit, if I wasn't standing in the framed spot, I probably would've believed her too. And the next thing I knew, I was facing her mother, who was standing protectively over her demanding answers out of. My confidence lost I tried to blubber out some words, to no avail.

And then I was promptly kicked out, with her screaming at me "Never go anywhere near my daughter again! Get out of here!"

So I sat outside waiting for my mother to pick me up, trying my best to cover my hair from public. When she arrived, she took once glance at my hair, and questions were mobbed at me. I didn't know what else to do but frown sadly as she asked me why I was waiting outside, and so on.

On the bright side, we went to a salon to fix my hair to its original state, just a lot shorter. Still, I had to tell my mom about the play date, and why my hair turned out like that.

Surprisingly, my mom didn't hug me or anything. She just muttered how she hated kids like that, and patted my head. "You have the most beautiful hair I've ever seen."

She was my mom; it was her duty to say that. Wasn't it?

And the few times I saw Victoria in town, you could say I had gotten my revenge with some smashed fruit, and her just somehow tripping and falling. I wonder how?

And it was there my childhood ended. And I had somewhat of a plan to get to Japan.

A caged bird can't fly. I was that bird, not caged, but I didn't know where to fly

A/N: I hope you enjoyed! ^^

RoxanneTheGreat: I agree completely. Spanner is awesome. ^w^ Thanks for reviewing!

KuroShiroNeko-chan: ¡Gracias! No valía la pena intentarlo! He utilizado un traductor para hacer las cosas un poco más fácil para usted. Xanxus x OC sería ... muy, muy, difícil de escribir ... Lo recomiendo, dudo que pudiera tener carácter ... pensé que en realidad, sería estúpido si tenía un arma o algo para un niño de 4 años. No subestime cuchillos de mantequilla, aunque! Thanks for review!

Missha- MM: I have an idea to pair Ryohei with someone else. Apparently it's also canon about that too so OTP in my eyes! Thanks for reviewing!